Northern Crossover

Four weeks and around 3,800 miles from Boston to Seattle, the northern crossing, which is the one people take when they want the Great Lakes, the Black Hills, Yellowstone and Glacier rather than Route 66 and the desert. Flights, car and hotels are arranged together from the UK.

Three nights in Boston open it, then Albany by way of the Berkshires and two nights at Niagara Falls. Detroit follows, then three nights in Chicago, then Madison, Minneapolis and Sioux Falls on the run across the Midwest. Two nights at Keystone put you at the foot of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, and Devils Tower comes on the drive to Buffalo, Wyoming.

The last ten days are the best of it. Cody, then two nights in Yellowstone, two in Grand Teton, and Helena by way of Yellowstone’s northern loop. Two nights at Glacier National Park follow, where the Going-to-the-Sun Road is drivable from late June through September. Coeur d’Alene and Mount Rainier bring you down to two nights in Seattle to finish.

Eighteen stops over twenty-eight nights. The operator describes it as a four-thousand-mile route; their own daily figures come to nearer 3,800. Worth settling the dates, because the Yellowstone interior roads close from November to April and this route uses them twice, once to get in and once to get out. The itinerary is bespoke and departures are arranged around your dates. It suits anyone who wants the full width of the country by the northern route, with four national parks in the back half.